Mohammad Didar had given his eight-year-old daughter Ardita a piggy bank to save coins. The plastic bank was intact inside a wardrobe when all three members of his nuclear family died inside the flat in the Nimtoli inferno on June 3.

Editorial

THE long awaited Chittagong City Corporation (CCC) election has been completed. The mayoralty has been intensely contested and what has been refreshingly absent was the charged atmosphere in which the past electoral campaigns used to be conducted and the animosity that used to pervade the post election scene. We offer our congratulations to the mayor-elect Manjur Alam and hope that his supporters would not go overboard while celebrating his victory. Untoward incidents should not mar a good election.

AGAINST the backdrop of falling of city water table by three metres every year, and ever rising demand for water because of population pressure, rainwater harvesting by the city dwellers has been offered as a viable option by experts. We take note of the fact that rainwater would be able to meet 15 percent of the annual water demand in the capital and we believe that would come as a big relief if implemented properly. These facts and figures were revealed in a recently held seminar on 'Urban Rain Water Harvesting for Domestic Use and Groundwater Recharge' jointly organised by the Institute of Architects Bangladesh and WaterAid Bangladesh.

Tillakaratne Dilshan put in an all-round performance to help Sri Lanka thrash Bangladesh by 126 runs in the third match of the Asia Cup at the at the Rangiri stadium in Dambulla yesterday. Dilshan smashed a 51-ball 71 as Sari Lanka put on a massive 312 runs for four wickets in their allotted 50 overs. He later took three wickets conceding only 37 runs as Bangladesh were folded for 186 in 40.2 overs. The 126-run win earned Sri Lanka a bonus point while Bangladesh now risk elimination losing two of their matches.

High-profile blunders, problems with the swerving ball, injuries, a rare red card and even claims of girlfriend distraction have combined to make the World Cup's first week something of a nightmare for goalkeepers.

If anything, it's the Argentina public who will be doing the 'making up' if Maradona lifts the Jules Rimet Trophy, emulating Germany's Franz Beckenbauer by winning the World Cup as both a player and a coach.

Five more players joined leaders FM Minhazuddin Ahmed Sagar, FM Mehdi Hasan Parag, FM Mohammad Javed and Debaraj Chatterjee on top of the points table of the preliminary phase of 36th National Chess Champion-ship at the close of the sixth round games at Bangladesh Chess Federation Hall Room yesterday.

The capital is faced with an uphill task in the coming decades of having to deal with an increased threat of mostly manmade catastrophes as decades of unplanned urbanisation finally starts to catch up with the city and its 13 million residents.

Home Minister Advocate Sahara Khatun yesterday said the government is going to recruit 13,000 new policemen in addition to the existing 1.24 lakh contingent of the force to build it as a people-friendly organisation.

Lawmaker Hasanul Haque Inu yesterday said results of the Chittagong City Corporation (CCC) mayoral election show that the religious fanatics, militants and razakars have made a comeback in the political field.

The National Committee to Protect Oil, Gas, Mineral Resources, Power and Ports took stage a demonstration at Keraniganj yesterday to press for their seven-point demand, including a ban on export of mineral resources.

Supporters and political activists greet BNP-backed mayor candidate Mohammad Manjur Alam, who won the Chittagong City Corporation elections on Thursday defeating his rival Awami League-backed candidate ABM Mohiuddin Chowdhury. The voting took place in a fair and peaceful manner, but tension ran high when supporters of both the candidates, equipped with sticks, gathered near MA Aziz Stadium in the port city during vote counting on Thursday night and chased each other. Members of the armed forces were deployed to avert any untoward incident. Talking to reporters yesterday, Mohiuddin brought allegation of anomalies in the vote counting.

At least 25 people, including eight students of the Dhaka Polytechnic Institute and the Glass and Ceramic College, were injured during a clash between two groups of transport workers at Tejgaon Truck Stand in the city last night.

South Korea and India agreed yesterday to launch talks on forging a nuclear energy cooperation pact, the foreign ministry said, a deal which would pave the way for Seoul's export of an atomic power plant.

Kyrgyzstan's acting leader admitted the death toll from ethnic clashes is probably 2,000 -- ten times the current estimate -- as she went to the ravaged south where the UN said up to a million people may have been affected.

Arts & Entertainment

Nagarik Natya Sampradaya will stage its latest production “Opekkhoman” at the Experimental Theatre Hall, Bangladesh Shilpakala Academy this evening at 7pm. Based on works of Ibsen, Rabindranath Tagore and Syed Shamsul Haq, the play was premiered at the International Ibsen Seminar and Theatre Festival last year. Today marks the sixth show of the play.

Swapan Majumder is an Indian exponent of Chhau dance and his wife Sucheta, a Bangladeshi, is a Kathak artiste. The dancer duo is now in Dhaka to conduct a workshop on dance. Noted Bangladeshi dancers Shamim Ara Nipa and Shibli Mohammad of Nrityanchal are organising the workshop. Starting from June 6, the workshop is on at Bangladesh Shilpakala Academy and will continue till June 21.

Joya Ahsan“I've been a football enthusiast since childhood and World Cup is something which one gets to see once every four years. It is the biggest celebration of football on the planet. Naturally, during every World Cup I'm very excited, and this year is no different,” said Joya Ahsan, one of the popular actresses on the small screen.

A naive young man, Choita, whom the villagers call “pagol” (crazy), remains seemingly stable for 11 months. For a month every year, Choita turns insane. The villagers exploit Choita and make him do all kinds of chores. But when he turns “mad,” he is shunned by all. Even when he goes without food for days, no one comes to his aid. The drama serial “Choita Pagol” narrates his story.

Actress Falguni Hamid has been appointed as director of Bangladesh Shishu Academy, says a press release. The seasoned actress has also been involved with journalism for 15 years. She completed Masters in Bangla from the University of Dhaka.

OP-ED

TWO news items ran side by side on BBC's website this week: Bangladesh will deploy women police officers to international peace keeping operations, and the government has designated June 13 as "Eve Teasing Protection Day." Progress on one side and retrogression on the other, they exemplify the schizophrenic state of affairs for women in Bangladesh today.

EVEN a casual observer of our socio-political scene can, without much effort, notice a disturbing pattern in all the devastations that have overtaken the nation in the recent days. Whether it is the collapsed and tilted structures at Begunbari causing deaths and injuries of depressed folks or the scores of horrendous deaths in the tragic all-engulfing fire at Nimtoli or the multiple casualties consequent to the landslide in Cox's Bazar, the deliberate flouting of safety rules and precautions is all too apparent.

OBAMA acknowledged young people, who thrust him into the White House, as much as he could in his victory speech in Chicago's Grant Park after winning the presidential election: "It was the young people who rejected the myth of their generation's apathy, who left their homes and their families for jobs that offered little pay and less sleep."

IT is axiomatic that politics in Bangladesh does not centre around peoples' aspirations any longer. Today we witness a numbed despair among our polity because of the worsening political environment due to predominance of guns, goons and gold. Most people think that this is happening because of the leaders' patronisation.

ON June 10, the finance minister presented the budget 2010-2011 before the Parliament for approval. Despite a number of constraints the budget is big and ambitious. The principal objectives of the budget are reaching high performing growth, bringing poverty to a minimum level and securing health and education for all.

Environment

KEITH A Wheeler, Chair of the Commission on Education and Communication of IUCN highlights: “Today's challenges are moving towards more sustainable financial and energy systems, food security and international security -- all these challenges ultimately depend on the services nature offers”. These services are mainly offered by biodiversity, although this is a critical period for it in this year (2010) of biodiversity.

Biodiversity is the “living foundation” for sustainable development. Now, to make biodiversity sustainable is one thing; and to practice sustainable use of biodiversity is another. Making biodiversity sustainable is the process; and sustainable use of biodiversity is the technique. To us important is that, we shall have to understand the process of making biodiversity sustainable, and the technique to be adopted for its use at the same time.

William Shakespeare is everywhere and our debt to him is unlimited. If we type his name in on any search engine, we will find him on thousands of Websites. His image, his characters, and quotes from his works can be found in countless movies, on television shows, in literary works, and in advertisements. Even on an auction site, we will find thousands of Shakespeare-related items: books, films, T-shirts, bottle openers, coffee mugs, ties, caps, coat pins, buttons, chocolates, toffees and much more.

It was an arduous Albertan winter. The temperatures fell to - 45 degree centigrade. Edmonton was the coldest place on the planet for a week or two. The winds moaned incessantly and snow drifts piled up high in our front lawn. Nature appeared insensate. I ventured out for grocery essentials on one of those sub-zero days and thought I was in the midst of an Alistair Maclean's novel, namely “Ice Station Zebra”! In times such as this, a human being asks one self... “Where am I? Where have I been? and... Where am I going?''. Then one evening there were sparks in the dark night sky. I saw flashes of the aurora borealis that only manifests itself in the arctic zone. It was eerie-the skies lit up like a fireball and then the spirit of the great North appeared to speak: “Patience, my child...life unfolds in its own patterns, of which you are only a small part...Embrace the North and it will embrace you.”

Star Health

The previous week was distinctly special for millions of people living with end stage liver disease (like liver cirrhosis or liver cancer) in Bangladesh. Long awaited liver transplant surgery has been successfully performed at BIRDEM Hospital, Dhaka. Professor Mohammad Ali, Head, Hepato Biliary and Pancreatic Surgery of BIRDEM Hospital lead the way to reach a historical feat.

When applied to HIV care, the community-based model of directly observed therapy (DOT) has no effect on virologic outcomes, but significantly improves patient survival. This is according to researchers at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, in collaboration with colleagues at University of Cape Town, South Africa, who conducted the first randomised controlled trial of patient-nominated treatment-supporters providing partial DOT in resource-limited settings. The researchers found that mortality rates were lower among DOT patients than among self-monitored antiretroviral therapy (ART). The results are featured in the June 1, 2010, issue of AIDS.

Attending a drug rehab will help you recover from drug or alcohol addiction in many different ways. A drug rehab is a facility that is specially designed just for this purpose, to provide a safe and drug free environment where a former drug or alcohol abuser can be educated about addiction and how to get clean and stay clean.

Tobacco is currently the second major cause of death in the world and causes significant adverse effects on maternal and child health. Tobacco is a preventable cause of maternal, perinatal and neonatal mortality. Recent findings of the Global Youth Tobacco Survey, shows that young girls are smoking almost as much as young boys and those girls and boys are using non-cigarette tobacco products such as spit tobacco, biddies and water pipes at similar rates.

One old Spanish proverb said that habits are at first cobwebs, then cables. In fact, most of life is habitual. It is estimated that out of every 11,000 signals we receive from our senses, our brain only knowingly processes 40!

Strategic Issues

HISTORY of modern world agrees that in spite of the continuous barrage of advices/support/aid from the developed countries, Third World countries maintain a volatile socio-political environment. Military coup or multidimensional political somersault is the order of the day. It is quite unfortunate for the people and also for the leadership that they are yet to figure out how and why it happens, let alone when it takes place. It is extra conducive in a country where the leadership is encircled by associates with minimum sense of patriotism and is totally consumed in enjoying power. To avoid such intermittent political fiasco we need to learn how to detect it. Only then we would probably be wise enough to prevent it.

IN his Cairo speech on June 5th last year, President Obama had raised a great deal of hope and expectations among Muslims that his administration would make sincere attempts to address their concerns. Instead he has sent more troops to Afghanistan and has decided to win the war against terror, primarily militarily. In Iraq, there was an election that was heralded to be a major step towards establishing democracy. But three months have gone by and still a government has not been formed and though conflicts, deaths and suicide bombings have declined, Iraq is far from being a safe country. President Obama seems to be following the script of his predecessor.

About 450 U.S. and NATO forces are working to bring the 3,300 members and 48 aircraft of the Afghan army air corps up to par as part of a long-term effort to give the country a self-sufficient air force, the Air Force general leading the transition team said June 10.

Star Books Review

TWO unforgettable stories, “Impulse” and “Temptation”, are put into the book Windfall and the result is a two-in-one pulsing romance. Nora Roberts is indeed a word artist, painting her stories and her characters with vitality and verve. Both the stories hold the reader mesmerized. With clear-eyed vision and a sure pen Roberts nails her characters and settings with awesome precision, drawing readers into a vividly rendered world of family centered warmth and sheer magic.

ON 11 August 2008, Peter Clark writes in a Guardian obituary that as a poet, author, and politician, Mahmoud Darwish 'did as much as anyone to forge a Palestinian national consciousness.' While Clark's comment is undebatable, it is also true that Darwish's poetry transcends its national boundary by reflecting on universal humane values through the mirror of the Palestinian experience. It is one of the major reasons why Darwish now is a great name in world literature. Memory for Forgetfulness is his exquisitely written prose-memoir. Ibrahim Muhawi's adept translation brings out the delicacy of the piece. It is based on Israel's invasion of Lebanon in 1982 that was aimed at wiping out the PLO's base from southern Lebanon. The fact seems most startling when one reads the memoir containing evocative details of Beirut under siege. Darwish, however, lifts up the sufferings of the invasion to an aesthetic level through his musings on reality, belonging, history, resistance and the role of art involving these. The entire book is an extended internal monologue (the poet's thoughts in his mind) about which Robyn Creswell writes in Harper Magazine's January 2009 issue: